Senator Mike Duffy claims living allowances despite being Ottawa resident since the 1970s

Conservative Senator Mike Duffy lives and votes in Kanata, but lists his house there as his secondary residence.

Photograph by: Gord Waldner
, The Star Phoenix

Conservative Senator Mike Duffy has claimed more than $33,000 in living allowances intended to defray senators’ costs of maintaining a second home in the National Capital Region, even though he is a long-time Ottawa resident.

Senators are required to be resident in their home province but they can claim compensation for the extra costs of living in a “secondary residence” in the capital. Duffy, the former TV journalist who represents Prince Edward Island, counts a cottage he owns in Cavendish, P.E.I., as his primary residence.

“I bought it 15 years ago as a summer cottage and have since spent more than ($100,000) making it a year-round home,” Duffy said in an email.

Since September 2010, Duffy has charged the Senate $33,413 for living expenses in the National Capital Region, although he and his wife bought their current home in Kanata — now their secondary residence — five years before his Senate appointment.

“The other option is to stay in a hotel, and I assume the housing allowance is in lieu,” Duffy said. “I have done nothing wrong, and am frankly tired of your B.S.,” he said in a subsequent email.

Conservative Senator David Tkachuk, head of the Senate’s board of internal economy, says Duffy’s expenses are entirely within the rules. He believes there’s no reason for Duffy not to claim the housing expenses in Ottawa.

“Why wouldn’t he?” said Tkachuk. “When you travel to Ottawa, you get expensed for living in Ottawa. In his case, he has a home here, so he would charge off whatever the daily rate is.”

Senators from out of town are eligible to be reimbursed for hotel costs or monthly rent, provided they don’t lease from family members.

Those who own their secondary residences in the National Capital Region can be reimbursed at a daily rate established by the board. The allowance pays a limit of about $30 daily or $900 per month for housing expenses incurred while in the Ottawa area, Tkachuk said.

Unlike senators who move to Ottawa when appointed, however, Duffy has lived mostly in the National Capital Region since he came to cover Parliament Hill as a journalist in the 1970s. Duffy, 66, and his wife Heather bought their current home next to the Kanata Golf and Country Club for $293,000 in 2003.

Elections Canada records suggest he votes in Kanata, too.

Media reports have noted that Duffy spends summers in P.E.I. He bought the cottage, not far from the ocean, in 1998, according to the local land registry office.

Tkachuk says there is no test to determine whether a senator actually lives in his or her primary residence.

“Your primary residence is what you say your primary residence is,” he said. “It’s where you file your income taxes from, where you get your mail.”

The November 2012 version of Elections Canada’s voters’ list records Duffy as a resident of Carleton — Mississippi Mills, the Kanata riding represented by Conservative Gordon O’Connor. There is no rule requiring senators to vote in their home province.

Duffy and his wife have listed both their P.E.I. address and their Kanata address when making political donations. In May 2011, they each donated $1,100 to the Conservative Party of Canada using a postal code that corresponds to their Kanata home.

The year before, Heather Duffy gave $580 to the Conservative association in P.E.I. riding of Malpeque using the P.E.I. address. Mike Duffy listed his Kanata address on a $295 donation to the Charlottetown Conservative association in 2009.

Tkachuk notes that many senators who own homes in Ottawa make similar claims for housing expenses and says it would not be unusual for them to return to the province in summer.“ A lot of senators stay here all winter long and then they go home for the summer.”

Senators with a primary residence within 100 kilometres of the city are not eligible for the allowance.

CTV News recently reported that Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau was claiming the housing allowance for a home in Gatineau while listing as his primary residence his father’s home in Maniwaki, Quebec.

Neighbours interviewed by CTV said they didn’t think Brazeau lived in the Maniwaki home.

It is unclear from Duffy’s quarterly expense reports if his living expense claims were for housing or meals. Senators are entitled to claim meal and incidental expenses as well as housing to a maximum of about $21,000 annually. The Senate does not provide breakdowns of these claims.

Duffy first came to Ottawa as a national reporter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He has spent most of his career with the CBC, Baton Broadcasting and CTV covering federal politics from Ottawa.

He was appointed to the Senate on the recommendation of Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the end of 2008.

Only a handful of Senators did not make claims for the Ottawa housing allowance.

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